1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium ejecting apparatus, and more particularly to a recording medium ejecting apparatus by which a tray usually inserted inwardly and ejected outwardly from a drive is sufficiently ejected by means of electric power to a position where a disk can be inserted or removed in a tray-loading type optical disk drive typically used in a notebook computer.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
A conventional tray-loading type optical disk drive 20 using a disk as a recording medium includes, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a lower chassis 1 and an upper chassis 2 which are joined together to form an outer casing, and a disk is driven between the lower chassis 1 and the upper chassis 2.
The conventional optical disk drive is constructed such that a tray 6 is slidably installed at an upper portion of the lower chassis 1 so as to be movable inwardly and outwardly to and from the drive 20.
A turntable 7 upon which a disk D may be mounted is installed in the tray 6. A damper 8 for preventing the disk K from dismounting during rotation after being inserted on the turntable 7 is installed at an upper surface of the turntable 7.
At one side of the turntable 7, there is provided an optical pick-up 9 for recording and reproducing signals onto and from the disk D, and a lead screw (not shown) being rotated by a sled motor (not shown) is installed to move the optical pick-up 9 in a radial direction of the disk D.
For convenience""s sake, regarding explanations on the formation of the lower chassis 1 and the upper chassis 2, and other elements combined thereto, hereinafter the direction in which the tray 6 is ejected from the drive 20 is referred to as the forward direction, while its opposite direction is referred to as the backward direction.
A driving plate 10 operable by the lead screw is installed at a lower surface of the front side of the tray 6.
An eject lever 11 is installed to be operable according to the operation of the driving plate 10.
In explanations hereinafter, of the both sides of the lower chassis 1 and the tray 6, the opposite side to the side where the eject level 11 is positioned is referred to as the one side, while the side where the eject level 11 is positioned is referred to as the other side.
The eject lever 11 is rotatably installed centering around a hinge shaft 11h connected to a lower surface of the tray 6, and a protrusion 11s is provided at a rear side of the hinge shaft 11h. The protrusion 11s is engaged in an engaging portion 5 formed in the lower chassis 1 to thereby control the rotation of the eject lever 11.
A spring 14 is installed at a predetermined portion of a lower surface of the tray 6 so that the tray 6 may have an elasticity in the forward direction when the tray 6 is completely inserted into the drive 20.
An elastic support guide 13 is installed at an upper surface of the tray positioned outwardly of the spring 14, so that the elastic support guide 13 is elastically and selectively supported by the spring 14 as being combined thereto. The guide 13 is selectively contacted with an elastic support plate 4 installed at an upper surface of the upper chassis 2.
That is, when the tray 6 is positioned inside the drive 20, as the elastic support guide 13 is contacted with the elastic support plate 4 and is moved backwardly, the spring 14 is put in a tensioned state.
Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 4, sliding legs 6s and 6sxe2x80x2 for guiding the tray 6 when it moves forward and backward to and from the drive 20 are formed along the entire length of both side edges of the tray 6.
The sliding legs 6s and 6sxe2x80x2 are respectively inserted into guide rails 3 and 3xe2x80x2 that are installed along the entire length of both sides of the tray, and guide the movement of the tray 6 as they move along the guide rails 3 and 3xe2x80x2.
Support rails 3s and 3sxe2x80x2 for supporting the sliding legs 6s and 6sxe2x80x2 are installed between the guide rails 3 and 3xe2x80x2 and the sliding legs 6s and 6sxe2x80x2 so that the tray 6 can be extracted outwardly of the guide rails 3 and 3xe2x80x2.
The operation of the tray 6 for loading and unloading the disk D in the conventional disk drive constructed as described above will now be explained, largely focussing on the ejection of the tray 6 from the drive 20.
When an eject button 12 combined with the other side of the front side of the tray 6 is pressed by a user, the optical pick-up moves to one side of the outer periphery of the disk D.
At the instant when the movement of the optical pick-up 9 toward the outer periphery of the disk D occurs, an overstroke occurs at the lead screw which moves the optical pick-up 9, and the driving plate 10 is moved forwardly by the overstroke.
According to such movement of the driving plate 10, the eject lever 11 is rotated counterclockwise centering around the hinge shaft 11h, and then the engaging portion 11s is released from the engagement with the protrusion 5.
With such operation, when the tray is released from the lower chassis 1, as shown in FIG. 3, it is a bit (as long as a distance movement produced by the elasticity of the spring 14) protruded forwardly from the drive 20 due to the elasticity of the spring 14. At this time, since the tray 6 is not sufficiently ejected outwardly to the position where the recording medium can be inserted or removed, the tray needs to be manually taken out from the drive 20 by the user to the position shown in FIG. 4 where the disk D can be inserted to or removed from the turntable 7.
Then, after the disk D is inserted to or removed from the turntable 7, the tray 6 needs to be manually pushed back into the drive 20 by the user.
By pushing the tray 6 into the drive 20 completely, the engaging portion 11s of the eject lever 11 is again engaged with the protrusion 5, and then the tray 6 is fixed inside the lower chassis 1.
Of course, as the tray 6 moves inwardly of the drive 20, the elastic support guide 13 is moved backwardly by the elastic support piece 4, rendering the spring 14 to be in a tensioned state.
Accordingly, when the spring 14 is in the tensioned state, the tray 6 is urged to be moved outward from the drive 20 by the spring 14, nevertheless, the tray 6 won""t move outwardly because the engaging portion 11S is engaged with the protrusion 5.
Reference numeral 39 denotes an insertion detection protrusion.
However, the conventional optical disk drive as described above is disadvantageous in that most operations of the tray for loading and unloading of the disk are manually done, causing users""s inconveniences.
In detail, when the eject button is pressed, since the tray is not sufficiently ejected for the user to insert the disk onto the turntable or to remove the inserted disk therefrom, the user must use his or her hands directly to pull out the tray.
In addition, after the disk is inserted or removed, the user must again use his or her hands to push the tray into the drive for complete insertion.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium ejecting apparatus by which a loading tray can be automatically moved for loading and unloading of a disk with respect to a thin and small optical disk drive.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purposes of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a recording medium ejecting apparatus including a drive main body, a tray for carrying a recording medium and being movable outwardly and inwardly of the drive main body, and a driving unit for movement of the tray, and also for movement of the tray even in a state that the tray is completely ejected from the drive main body.
There is also provided a recording medium ejecting apparatus which includes a driving unit for supplying a driving power for ejecting a tray, being positioned within a range corresponding to a radius of a recording medium taken at an opposite direction of ejection over a diameter of the recording medium orthogonal to an ejection direction of the tray.
Additionally, there is provided a recording medium ejecting apparatus including a driving unit for supplying a driving force enabling a tray to be inserted from a completely ejected state from a drive main body, being positioned between the drive main body and the tray.